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Article Excerpt
UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: Good afternoon and welcome to this presentation of the 2008 results. As for our meeting, as usual, we're going to have a brief presentation followed by a Q&A session. At the end of the meeting, the -- of course, going to be available for any further information.
The floor to Dr. Costa and Dr. Vismara.
MAURIZIO COSTA, CEO, MONDADORI (ARNOLDO) EDITORE SP: Good afternoon. Welcome to this traditional meeting and, as usual, we're going to try to be quite brief in our presentation of the results so as to be exhaustive in trying to answer your questions.
Briefly, and of course, we're going to go through the details in subsequent slides, but let's focus on the main items. As to revenues, we've had minus 7.1%, but as you know, we, in November, printing was sold and [imitate also Pacifa]. But on the like-for-like basis, we're down 6%. And if the add-on sales are excluded and, as you know, add-on sales are going down -- so if add-on sales are excluded, the fall would have been of 2.5%.
Similar for the EBTIDA, a minus 7.3%. As we're going to see, the printing component on EBITDA is significant and tense, while at the same time there has been an improvement, vis-a-vis the previous year, especially as for the core business. But I'm not going to dwell on this because we'll see this later. And finally, as for the net profit, amounted to EUR97.1 million, a minus 13.8%. The fall was largely due to higher amortizations on intangible assets and prudent write-downs on financial assets.
The profit and loss account, you see revenues, minus 7.1%, EBTIDA, minus 7.3%. So, similar incidents. So, we maintain a level of profitability, which is totally in line with the previous year. As for the EBIT, minus 9.6%, so in line with the previous year in terms of the EBIT margin. And you see here the profit before taxation and the net profit on the slide.
Let's take a look at the EBITDA variation which requires a comment on our part from the EUR269 million of last year. We've had negative impact during the year of EUR17 million coming from printing, which was decreasing rapidly. We're going to see this when we analyze each single business. And this is penalized by EUR17 million as [it can see] here in terms of overall variance.
And of course, I'm commenting the variance here had this impact on the EBITDA for the previous year. This decrease has been compensated by the positive contribution of the extraordinary items which includes the sale of printing and the sale of also tangible assets while, to be clear, we've also had income, let's say, of extraordinary items sold in the 2007. So, these are also counted in.
As for development, we have followed along the line that you know, so in the field of digital projects, the total is the one you see here, EUR7.9 million. We've had a loss of revenues in absolute terms on add-ons, while we have invested in the field of restructuring, EUR4.7 million -- plus EUR4.7 million is against last year. And I say this, for the last time, it's a delta between what we invested in 2007 and 2008 in absolute values.
We are around EUR9 million in terms of restructuring for the year 2008. And this is giving us also really short-term benefit in term of efficiency and cost reduction for a total of EUR6.5 million. And this is the efficiency. So overall, in terms of the macro area, but, let's say, being transparent on, let's say, this is -- these are the results for the year 2008.
So, the floor to Mr. Vismara for the balance sheet.
CARLO MARIA VISMARA, CFO, MONDADORI (ARNOLDO) EDITORE SP: Yes, net working capital has gone off the against the previous year as a proportion of revenues were around 10%. The net capital employed by EUR1 billion, which is being financed, 50% by net debt and so, EUR490 million. And net assets for EUR509 million. The ROE is around 19.2%. As for the dynamics in the net financial position, we started last year with net debt to EUR535 million. Then, we reclassified the data excluding from the start, the printing component, so that we can then add at the end the impact of the sale of printing.
So, EUR160 million of gross cash flow, EUR77.5 million income taxes, dividend payout, EUR83.8 million, net investments, EUR27.4 million, working capital and other at around EUR47.5 million. And finally, with the sale of printing, the net financial position improved by about EUR45 million.
As for the management of our financial position at the end of the year, we have cash or similar for, you see, EUR39.7 million and term deposits for EUR341 million with expire date between April and May. As for the liabilities, you see bonds, EUR296 million, long-term loans, EUR432 million, and short-term loans and other, EUR143 million. And as this issue is concerned, we are completing what had been invested in terms of our cash about had four or five years ago. So, the investment in assets are now only in the field of time deposits.
This is for the current credit lines. More than twice of our net debt, so more than EUR1 billion. The expire rate -- most of it has an expire between July 2011 and onward. We also have here the covenant for each single line, so EUR350 million, EUR275 million for the proper placement and other covenants and public placements which were all listed here in the slide.
Going back to the market scenario and to our specific businesses, we have a snapshot of our reference market in Italy. It is with underlying that we're speaking about prehistoric scenarios, vis-a-vis what has taken place over the last month of the year. So, I have to say that this is a picture of, of course, the year 2008, but clearly it is a snapshot of 2008 which has gone on a different speed.
But as for books, books have been essentially stable. For magazines, there has been a fall in circulation by about 5% and a marked decline in add-on sales. As for advertising, we've had a 7% decrease for consumer magazine and a growth in radio, plus 2.3%, and on internet, plus 13.9%. In France, as for the magazine circulation, minus 3%, and advertising, minus 4%.
So, within this context, which is made up by variable speed and by different scenarios, let's now focus to see what we have done specifically. Again, this is an overall snapshot and then, I'll go into the detail of each single business. So overall, I would say that the only comment that I would make vis-a-vis this general slide, as you can see that radio, as against the market, has had an extraordinary performance.
You see that magazines -- we will see this later on -- we've had 9% decrease, but it's a mix and advertising, we've had a minus 5.3% with a market which has been weaker. And printing had a bad year, minus 28%. But I won't dwell on this because I would risk repeating things that, let's say, have already been said or that we'll see later.
So, let's go to books. As for books, there has been a reduction of 2.4% in terms of total revenues, but made up differently. The trade, which is fundamental for us in terms of specific weight had a slight decrease. The same for education. But I have to say that this is essentially due to specific editorial programs while art and exhibition went down more by minus 16.6%, due also to some problems in the field of cultural goods. This is what we have seeing here in Italy. And then for distribution and other, we have had a plus 5.1%.
What is interesting, but we have to underline are the two final figures. And the first is that it's a net of add-on sales we would have had, minus 1.1%. And let's say that art and exhibitions have always, let's say,...
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